


Friend of a Friend

by fourdaysofrain



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Gen, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter Parker, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21612016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourdaysofrain/pseuds/fourdaysofrain
Summary: “Iron Man!”The woman who opened the door is younger than he expected. She’s wearing an apron covered in flour and when she notices him looking, she nervously tries to wipe it off. Maybe Tony should have called ahead. Or at least given her more time to prepare than just knocking on her door. To be fair, he’s got a few things on his mind right now. At least falling into the public-eye persona he uses is still as easy as ever.“Ms. Parker, nice to meet you.” He keeps his tone carefully charming and cordial. ”Normally when I’m out of the suit, I go by Tony.”She blushes and stops wiping her apron. “Of course, sorry. My nephew’s a big fan. Sorry, I’m sure you hear that a lot.” She tucks her hair behind her ear and sighs. “I’m rambling. Let me try again. I’m May Parker.” She sticks a hand out.Tony takes it in a handshake with a grin. “Tony Stark. Don’t worry, as far as introductions go, that was far from the worst.”---(AKA five times Tony Stark visited May Parker, and one time she went to see him.)
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 55
Kudos: 366





	Friend of a Friend

_ one: on first impressions _

“Iron Man!”

The woman who opened the door is younger than he expected. She’s wearing an apron covered in flour and when she notices him looking, she nervously tries to wipe it off. Maybe Tony should have called ahead. Or at least given her more time to prepare than just knocking on her door. To be fair, he’s got a few things on his mind right now. At least falling into the public-eye persona he uses is still as easy as ever. 

“Ms. Parker, nice to meet you.” He keeps his tone carefully charming and cordial. ”Normally when I’m out of the suit, I go by Tony.”

She blushes and stops wiping her apron. “Of course, sorry. My nephew’s a big fan. Sorry, I’m sure you hear that a lot.” She tucks her hair behind her ear and sighs. “I’m rambling. Let me try again. I’m May Parker.” She sticks a hand out.

Tony takes it in a handshake with a grin. “Tony Stark. Don’t worry, as far as introductions go, that was far from the worst.”

May laughs nervously, then seems to remember the situation she’s in. She opens the door a bit wider. “Do you want to come in? I’d really like to know what Tony Stark is doing at my apartment.”

“I’d love to.” He follows her into the apartment as she leads him to the living room.

“Make yourself at home. I just finished baking some walnut date loaf, I’ll bring it out.” She walks over to the kitchen as he sits on the couch, but he can still hear her as she talks. “Sorry about the mess! If I knew Iron Man was visiting I would have vacuumed.”

He chuckles. “It’s no issue at all, Ms. Parker. I should have called ahead, but my schedule’s been so busy I never know when I have time to make house calls.”

May walks back from the kitchen without her apron on, bringing with her a serving platter with the walnut date loaf, a teapot, and two cups. She hesitates slightly before sitting on the side of the couch opposite Tony.

“So.” She leans against her elbow on the back of the couch. “What’s the need for a house call in the first place?”

“Ms. Parker, how aware are you of your nephew’s… extra-curricular activities?” He hopes the pause is enough to clue her in that he knows the kid’s Spider-Man. That is, if  _ she _ even knows. 

She glances to the side as she thinks. “Decathlon's the big one, but he’s also in band. He was in the robotics club, but he quit that after my husband passed.” Her eyes snap back to his as they widen. “He didn’t get in trouble with you or anything, right?”

“No, no. I send a suit for the trouble makers,” he says flippantly. So she doesn’t know. 

She laughs, but it’s still tinged with nerves. “So, what’d he do?”

He breaks eye contact and cuts himself a slice of the walnut date loaf. Maybe he should’ve taken Nat’s advice and prepared something to say beforehand. Well, he was always good at improv. “September Foundation Grant!” He inwardly grimaces at his elevated volume. Maybe not that good. He looks back to May. “Have you heard of it?”

She shakes her head. “Can’t say I have. Peter’s better with all the techie stuff. He’s the nephew I mentioned earlier.”

“The techie stuff’s actually why I’m here. Peter Parker, right?” She nods. “The September Foundation typically helps fund research projects for college students, but your nephew submitted a very compelling project proposal.” He punctuated his statement by taking a bite of the walnut date loaf. Hm. It’s a bit dry for his liking, but not unbearable. He’s able to swallow it without issue but doesn’t feel the need to take another bite. “Now, given he’s not a college student, there will be some finagling with the standard procedure. I was hoping I could get some of his input on some possible ideas, is he in right now?”

May stares at him, shell-shocked, for a second before responding. “Wow, that’s incredible. I mean, we always knew he was brilliant, but… Wow.” She shakes her head a bit. ”Um, he should be back from school any minute. Do you mind if I ask what this’ll mean for him?”

“Most likely?” Tony’s mind races to think of what’ll happen with the kid.  _ Peter,  _ he reminds himself. “Since he doesn’t have access to or experience with a high-level lab, he’ll likely spend some time at the tower training under someone in lieu of working on his project alone. If he’s okay with it, I’d like to have him as a personal intern. Pick his brain, as it were. I personally read his proposal, he’s a very bright young man. And, it’d look great on a college application.”

May’s eyes are wide. “If he’s okay with it? A personal internship with Tony Stark at Avengers Tower? He’s gonna lose his shit!” Tony gives a small smile at the blush that appears on May’s cheeks. “Oh God, sorry, you’ve just been his--”

Their conversation is cut off by the jingling of the doorknob. There’s a few beats before they hear a jaunty, “Hey, May!” May turns to Tony and mouths  _ Peter _ at him. He gives her a smile.

“Hey, how was school?” She does a good job at sounding like there’s not a superhero sitting next to her. 

“Okay. There’s this crazy car parked outside.” And finally, he comes into view. Tony looks up from his slice of walnut date loaf. Wow, he knew he was only fourteen years old, but it was hard to visualize. This kid’s  _ young. _ He smirks at the kid’s starstruck look. That’ll never get old.

“Mr. Parker.”

_ two: on spider-man _

When May opens the door for him, she just glares at him and walks into the living room. Tony takes the still-open door as the closest thing to an invitation to enter as he’s going to get. He lets himself in to find her pacing in the living room. 

“I had a bad feeling about you from the beginning, Stark,” she says with an icy voice, “I knew it was too good to be true.”

“All due respect, Ms. Parker--”

“Don’t even start with  _ all due respect,  _ you’re just preying on- on-” May pushes her hair out of her face. “On a widow and her nephew! You came in here talking about money and how good it’ll look on a college application, and then you sequester him to Germany where he fights  _ multiple fully grown adult superheroes,  _ and now you’re enabling him to run himself to the ground with this Spider-Man bullshit!”

Tony cringes at her volume, hoping the walls between apartments are thicker than they look. At least he came during Peter’s normal patrol time, so he doesn’t have to worry about the effect on his enhanced hearing. 

“Ms. Parker--”

“No, where the hell do you get off?” She stops pacing and turns to him and it’s like all of the air has been sucked out of the room. “I want to know why you think giving him a spandex suit and pointing him in the direction of New York’s worst is a good idea.” 

Tony finally reaches her eyesight. He expects to see the anger. What he doesn’t expect is the cold, consuming fear. She’s afraid. She must see something in his eyes too, because she deflates slightly. 

He sighs, and begins to speak softly. “Ms. Parker, my intention is to keep Peter safe. When I found him, he was fighting crime in an old pair of pajamas. His suit is equipped with the best technology I can offer. My only hope is to provide him with the resources he needs.”

May’s nose flares. When she speaks, her voice isn’t raised, but it is still soaked in acid. “If you want to play like that, there’s no backing out. You’re in it for the long haul. You either leave him alone, right now, or you never let him out of your sight for the rest of your life. I’m not gonna let you do that half-in, half-out bullshit.” She walks right up to Tony and stands so their faces aren’t even a foot apart. She speaks in a harsh whisper. ”I know you didn’t talk to him before. If you want to continue doing whatever it is you’re doing with him, you are going to be his primary resource. You need to keep him safe. Are you prepared for that, Stark? If he doesn’t come home, that’s on you. And it’d be my fault for letting you get close to him.”

Tony’s heart jumps into his throat. He opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. Looking at her, he sees something in May’s face crack. Her scared eyes flit across Tony’s face and she takes in a shaky breath of air before turning around and sitting on the couch. 

“I’m sorry. This isn’t about you.” She puts her head in her hands while Tony catches his breath. ”I’m just so scared of losing him, Tony. He’s all I have left.” After a moment, she looks shyly up at him. “You do make a good verbal punching bag, though.”

Tony snaps out of his frozen state and lets out a dry chuckle. “You’re not the first to use me as one.” He sits down on the couch next to her. “You might be the first to apologize right after, though.”

She looks over to him and smiles. He knows this conversation isn’t over. He knows he’s not on her good side yet. He knows that there’s still going to be countless arguments between the two of them. But there’s a spark of hope growing in his chest. And maybe it’s the way the light from the dying lightbulb in her ceiling fan hits her, but for the first time since he walked in the apartment, Tony thinks,  _ Okay. Maybe I’ve got a chance here. _

_ three: on building relationships _

Tony knocks on the front door to May’s apartment and waits for her to answer. He’s pretty sure she’s at home. Peter mentioned the other day that he was going to be doing… something with a friend tonight. So that meant May would be alone. He wants to get on her good side, especially since he’s started spending more time with the kid. Hopefully, it was an alright night to socialize. He eyes the bottle of wine he’s holding warily and debates leaving.  _ The best thing about spur-of-the-moment plans, _ he thinks,  _ is that you can bail at any time and no one will judge you.  _

But before he can start to walk away, May opens the door. “Oh! Mr. Stark!” She looks him up and down, her eyes catching on the bottle of wine. 

“Ms. Parker.”

She laughs airily at that and adjusts her stance. “Is there... something you need? Peter’s out with Ned right now.”

“I’m not here for the kid, actually. I figured we were due for a social call.” He holds up the wine bottle and gives what he hopes is an award-winning smile. 

May pulls her hair from behind her back to over one shoulder. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about how appropriate showing up randomly is.” She pauses and moves her glasses up her nose. After a beat, she gives him a shy smile. “But I had a long shift today and could really go for a glass of wine. You’re just lucky I haven’t changed into my pajamas yet.” She steps aside and he follows her into the kitchen area. 

The silence is only slightly tinged with awkwardness as May grabs some wine glasses and brings them to the kitchen table. Tony fills them both and then they sit across from each other. The table is cluttered with papers and he can almost recognize some of them as homework Peter’s worked on in the lab. 

May looks comfortable as can be, but Tony feels the need to say something to fill the silence. “So… How are you?” He cringes a little, but May doesn’t seem to mind the stilted small talk. 

“Better now that I’m home.” She follows his line of sight to the pile of papers. ”I’m not going to apologize for the mess this time, by the way.”

“Please. You should see my lab.” May’s laugh is clear and tinkling. Tony looks up to her, his tone suddenly turning self-conscious. “Do you want to, actually? Peter’s been visiting more often, maybe it should be Aunt-approved.”

May waves her hand nonchalantly as she lifts her glass. “Maybe someday, but I figure a genius CEO knows what’s safe for a teen.” She pauses to take a sip. “That is to say, I’m assuming Pepper had some input.”

Tony can’t hide the chuckle that escapes from his chest. “I’m wounded, May,” he says with a smile. ”Now I see where the kid gets it from.” 

She hums and gives him a small smile in return. “Speaking of _ the kid,” _ she makes her voice deeper in a half-assed imitation of Tony’s voice. “How’s Peter doing with Spider-Man?”

Tony takes a sip of his wine, stalling for time as he thinks of how to respond. Peter’s been saving a lot of lives as Spider-Man recently, but that also means he puts his own in danger far too often. He doesn’t want to worry her, but he’s sure she’d be able to spot a lie from a mile away. 

“That bad, huh?” He sets his glass back down and looks at May to see her smiling knowingly at him. 

He smiles back through a sigh and leans back into the chair. “The kid’s a menace,” he says. ”Got a good head on his shoulders, but he’s hell for my blood pressure.”

“Well, welcome to caring about Peter.” She raises her glass. Something soft and warm blooms in Tony’s chest. It must show on his face because May gives him a look. “Don’t think this means you’re growing on me. I’m still on the fence.”

“Course.” Tony clinks his glass with hers and takes another slow sip while she continues to hold his gaze, knowing he’s not done. “That’s why you let me come in at 6 pm on a Friday with no warning.”

May huffs and shakes her head as she looks down at the table, idly shuffling through some of the pieces of paper. Tony’s just about to say something when she barks out a laugh. 

“Oh my God, this is perfect.” She’s holding a piece of slightly aged printer paper in one hand and covering her mouth with the other. “I think Peter was 8 or 9 when he did this. We’ve been going through a bunch of boxes recently, he must have hidden this from me.”

She laughs to herself and offers it to Tony. He takes it and his heart skips a beat. On the paper is a child’s drawing of the Iron Man suit, complete with a pair of sunglasses and lines of crayon that stray outside of the lines. It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before. In fact, he has a file cabinet somewhere that’s filled with drawings and letters from kids. But for some reason, the unruly  _ Peter P.  _ scrawled in the corner makes his chest ache. He tears his eyes away from the picture to look back at May. 

“Wow, May. This is incredible.” He surreptitiously clears his throat. ”Top-notch blackmail material. I should call MoMA.”

She scoffs, but her eyes are soft. “You’re full of it.”

“I’m serious, this is modern art. Who knew he was so talented. He really captured the… aura of Iron Man.” He shoots May a grin. “I need to frame it. Maybe make it a flyer and spread it around the city. Somewhere he’ll see it.”

May rolls her eyes and plucks the drawing out of his hands. “I draw the line at public humiliation.” She gazes at the drawing and starts to smirk. “Humiliation between just the two of us, on the other hand… I think I have some photo albums in the living room if you want to see some more of Peter’s childhood.”

Tony’s eyes light up. “May, you’re going at the top of my will.”

She laughs and starts to walk into the living room. She calls from over her shoulder, “Bring the wine with you!”

They spend the next few hours drinking wine and laughing at Peter’s childhood antics. There are pictures from various Halloweens and birthdays mixed haphazardly with pictures from average days. Tony is careful not to mention the pictures that have Ben in them, but May talks about him openly. The Halloween pictures are the ones that make Tony laugh the most. The kid seemed to be alternating between dressing up as every Avenger and every Star Wars character. 

They’re about halfway through pictures of Peter’s middle school graduation (and well over halfway through the bottle of wine) when Tony realizes May hasn’t said anything for the last few pages. He looks over to see a few tears making a path down her cheeks.

“Woah, hey. Are you…” He trails off and awkwardly places a hand on her shoulder with just a touch too much force behind it. “Are you crying?”

“No,” she says with a sniff, “I’m just sad.”

“Oh, okay. Had me fooled.” He sinks back into the couch, dragging his focus from the scrapbook to May. The wine was starting to hit him. “Why are you… not crying?”

“He’s so big!”

“Peter?” May glares at Tony, but the soft cloud of inebriation behind her eyes softens the blow. “Okay, okay. Yeah, Peter’s a bonafide young adult now.”

May frowns and clumsily wipes her cheeks. “Just yesterday he was a lost little kid. He’s gonna graduate high school soon! He’s growing up too fast.”

“I know, he’s gotta quit doing that.”

“You can stop him. He’d listen to you. He never listens to me, he’d just go and… grow up faster or… something,” she says with surprisingly minimal slurring. Tony tries to plan out a blueprint for an anti-adult machine but just ends up snickering through his teeth. 

“I’ll be honest, May. I don’t think I can stop him from getting older.”

May makes a noise somewhere between a laugh and air escaping from a tire. “You’re Iron Man, you can figure something out.”

“Time travel’s a bit…” He pauses to take his hand off May’s shoulder and stretch, which causes him to let out an embarrassingly loud groan. He lowers himself back onto the couch, his face almost completely hidden by the cushion. “A bit above my pay grade.”

“Get Peter to invent it then, he’s way smarter than you.”

“Who here has a degree from MIT?” He doesn’t even wait for May to respond. “‘Cause Peter doesn’t.”

She scoffs. “He will in just a few years.”

“Yeah, well. I went to college when I was fourteen, so.” Tony swings his head over to see May holding her head in her hands and sniffling again. He backtracks. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry, he’s way smarter than me. Miles and miles ahead.”

“No, it’s not that.” May’s voice is only slightly muffled by her hands. “You’re right, but that’s not it.”

“Then what’s uh… What’s the deal?”

May picks her head up for just long enough for Tony to see the tear tracks making a return on her cheeks. “My boy’s gonna go to  _ college  _ soon! What am I going to do without him? I can’t be alone!”

“No, no, you can do so many things! Like, uh…” Tony racks his mind for what people do when they’re not taking care of teenagers. “Travel! Or crochet?”

May’s head falls back into her hands as she shakes it from side to side. Evidently, that wasn’t the right response. After a few moments of awkward silence, a lightbulb goes off. 

“Hey, tell you what.” Tony claps his hands together and May peers at him through her fingers. “Pep and I will have a kid, name him Peter, and you can adopt him. Then you can keep baby Peter for when spider Peter is away. You can watch Peter grow all over again. Pep and I can look after him when spider Peter visits. He never even has to know. Win-win.”

There’s a brief pause before May’s body shivers with emotion. Tony reaches over to pat her shoulder blade, but she pushes his hand away. She looks up, and she’s not sobbing anymore. She’s laughing. Her eyes are red and puffy, but she’s giving Tony a grin. 

She pauses in her laughing to say, “For a billionaire superhero, you can be pretty stupid.” Tony scoffs.

“I’ll have you know,” he says in a faux-professional tone, “this billionaire superhero is paying for your son’s college.”

A pause. May stiffens, which causes Tony to trail off and look at her with confusion. When May speaks, her voice is much soberer than before. “Nephew.” 

“Oh.” Tony freezes. “Nephew.”

“I’m his aunt,” May states. She gets a far-away look in her eyes and glances at the scrapbook that’s laying forgotten on the coffee table. “He’s not my son.”

Tony rubs his tongue along his teeth as he thinks about what to say. “Do you want to talk about it?” He grimaces. He sounds like a Hallmark card.

“No.” Her voice has a tone of finality that is too steady for how much she’s drinking. “Not with you. Not right now.”

“Then I can recommend a great therapist. All expenses paid. Way too much confidentiality. Maybe you can do that while the kid’s gone.”

“Stark, when will you learn you can’t just throw money at your problems to make them go away?” She cracks him a small smile despite her words. 

“In this day and age? Probably never.”

She snorts. “Too right.”

The rest of the night passes in a warm wine-tipsy haze of looking through photo albums and almost falling asleep on May’s shoulder. He vaguely remembers May putting a blanket over him and then going to her own room at some point. 

Tony wakes up to someone poking his face. His back aches from sleeping on the couch. His  _ head _ aches from drinking last night. Lord, say what you will about getting blackout drunk every night, but at least it helped him build a tolerance. He opens his eyes to see Peter taking up most of his vision. For a split second, an image of Rhodey in their old college dorm is superimposed over everything. He blinks his eyes a few times and Peter’s face comes back into view. 

“Anyone teach you manners, Underoos?” Tony grumbles. 

Peter ignores him. “Did you sleep here?”

Tony stretches and feels his spine pop like a firecracker. “Must’ve. Didn’t you see me last night? Or did you spend the night with uh, your friend?”

“I got back late last night. I came in through my window.”

“Sure, kid.” He looks over to his left, surprised to see the other side of the couch empty. “Hey, where’s your--”

He’s cut off by a voice from across the apartment. “I’m in the kitchen!” May yells. “How do you like your eggs?”

“Not burnt!” May gives him an admonishing shout, but sharing a grin with Peter is worth it. “I should actually get going, I  _ did  _ just show up out of the blue.”

“C’mon, Mr. Stark, you can stay for breakfast. It’s the weekend!”

May comes out of the kitchen and leans against the wall. She adjusts her glasses. “I really don’t mind. We always have breakfast together on Saturdays, and sleeping on that couch is punishment enough for coming over unannounced.” She gives Peter a knowing smirk. “‘Sides, Peter likes having you around. God knows why.”

Tony glances at Peter, who shrugs and looks away. “Well, in that case, I could go for an egg over-easy.”

May smiles sweetly at him. “Yeah, I was asking to be nice. You’re getting scrambled.”

Tony looks over at Peter, hoping for some of that patented superhero personality to come to his defense, but he just laughs. Traitor. 

_ interlude: on friends _

Tony’s catching up on Grey’s Anatomy with Pepper in the bedroom of his Manhattan apartment when his phone vibrates. He gives her an apologetic glance as he pulls it out of his pocket, but she just smiles and rolls her eyes from where she’s laying against his side. 

_ Hey, it’s May (Parker). Were you joking about that therapist? _

He types out his response quickly, knowing how stingy Pepper is with letting him rewind.

_ I wasn’t. I’ll send you her info later tonight, working on the suit rn. -Tony (Stark) _

Pepper looks up at him. “What are you smiling about?”

“Just helping out a friend.”  _ Friend.  _ He doesn’t think he’s appreciated that word enough. ”Feels good.”

Pepper responds by pushing herself further into his chest and placing a warm hand over the rough scar tissue above his heart. “Don’t tell me you’re going soft now, Mr. Stark.”

“For you, Ms. Potts?” He pulls his arm around her and rests his head on hers. “Never.”

She just laughs and leans into his touch. 

_ four: on more than friends _

Tony tries calling May for what feels like the hundredth time as he hustles up the seven flights of stairs. Christ, he’d have to try to pay for them to move to a lower floor. Like the several times he tried before, May still didn’t answer her phone. He texted Peter a few times, but he won’t get them until he comes back from his camping trip with Ned. Tony mentally adds  _ build a phone that never goes out of service  _ to his ever-growing to do list. He ignores the worry growing in his chest like a weed (he doesn’t want to even  _ start  _ to unpack the fact that his close circle of Pepper and Rhodey might be expanding) and activates his watch gauntlet as he finally reaches May’s door. He doesn’t even bother with trying to knock, deciding just to blast it open.

He runs into the apartment, gauntlet still warm against his palm, just to freeze in his tracks. May isn’t kidnapped or in any trouble. She’s sitting on the couch with a man Tony doesn’t recognize, both of them holding a glass of wine. When she sees him, her smile drops and she takes her hand off of where it was resting on the man’s thigh, causing him to follow her gaze.

“Holy shit, Tony Stark?” the man says. 

May quickly puts down her glass of wine and gets off the couch. “Um, hey, Tony. What’re you doing here?” Tony’s brain is still too busy rebooting to respond. 

“He’s not your ex, is he?”

Thankfully, they both look equally grossed out at that prospect. “No, thank God. I’m way out of his league. My nephew interns for him,” she says, as if that explains why Iron Man would show up at her apartment unannounced. She looks at him pointedly. “But I am wondering what he’s doing blasting my door down.”

“You didn’t answer your phone,” he states dumbly.

May sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Hey Nathan, can you give me a second with him?”

The man, Nathan, gets up from the couch. “I’ll just head out. I don’t want to keep the babysitter up, anyways.” He leans in and gives May a peck on her cheek after gathering his jacket from the armrest. “I’ll text you. I had fun tonight.” He stalls a bit in front of Tony, but recovers quickly. He sticks out his hand. “Mr. Stark, a pleasure.”

Tony gives a stiff smile and returns the handshake, completely on autopilot. Quiet reigns in the living room as him and May listen to the sound of the front door opening and closing, which takes an uncomfortable amount of time given it’s now missing a majority of its doorknob. 

As soon as her guest is out of earshot, May starts to speak. Her voice comes out strained, tired, and sounding much too old for her age. “Stark, I am a regular person. I’m not a superhero. I’m not constantly on the verge of being kidnapped. If I don’t answer my phone, your first thought should be ‘I hope she’s having a really nice date’, not ‘I should blast her door down.’” 

She looks to him and sighs. Tony suddenly feels a hot bolt of guilt race through his body and he feels inexplicably self-conscious. “Sorry,” he mumbles. 

May walks closer and places both of her hands on Tony’s cheeks. “Tony. Listen to me. If my choice is between talking to you on the phone and getting laid while my nephew is out of the house for a normal teenage reason for the first time in months, I will always choose the latter. What was so important that you had to ruin that?”

Tony sucks in a breath, already knowing she’s not going to like his reasoning. “I wanted your opinion on what I should get Peter for his birthday. He said a while back that you always answered your phone by the second ring, so when you didn’t answer at all, I got…” He trails off and scratches his neck, but the look on May’s face tells him he won’t get off that easy. He sighs. “I got worried.”

She flops back onto the couch and groans. “Is this what my life is going to be? Am I permanently going to have to take care of the dumbest men in the world?”

Tony clears his throat and gives his most charming smile. “If it makes you feel any better, in my line of work--”

“Can it, Iron Man.”

“Yep.”

_ five: on absence _

Tony feels like he hasn’t had a full breath of air since he got back to Earth. It’s as if the atmosphere around him changed from gas to liquid and he’s just fighting to stay afloat. 

He can’t remember how he got here. Both here, as in this state, and  _ here  _ here, as in the seventh floor of a run-down Queens apartment complex. Happy probably drove him. He probably even offered to be the one to come up here, but Tony must have turned him down. 

He hesitates before knocking. This is it. This is the moment Schroedinger opens the box. 

There’s no response.

Tony easily rams the front door open with his shoulder, hardly registering the pain. 

He sees a pile of dust sitting in front of a TV that is still playing the news. 

And he finally,  _ finally,  _ lets himself fall to his knees and cry.

_ plus one: on family _

It’s the party to end all parties. 

They’re celebrating one year of life, one year of victory, one year of  _ finally, _ one year of  _ fuck yes, we did it! _

No one really knows how the anniversary of the snap is being celebrated around the universe, but here in New York, it’s with a compound filled with as many superheroes as possible with strict orders to  _ let it all out. _

Tony’s busy dancing between Pepper and Rhodey to a song that he’s far too old to dance to when his watch vibrates. He rigged FRIDAY to let him know when certain people arrived so he could greet them personally rather than just having FRIDAY announce their arrival over the speakers. He excuses himself with a kiss on the lips for Pepper and one on the cheek for Rhodey before moving through the crowd to go to answer the front door. 

Once he gets there, he opens the door to see May and Peter. “Well, if it isn’t the Parkers! Come on in, party’s just getting started.” He waves them in. “I was just about to ask FRI if you were lost.”

May laughs and ruffles Peter’s hair. “I blame Peter completely. He should pay more attention to where Happy drives him.”

Peter scoffs and pushes her hand away before looking at Tony. “Hey, Mr. Stark.”

“Hey yourself, kid,” Tony says, pulling Peter in for a hug. “Been a few weeks.” After Peter, he gives a hug to May. “Always a pleasure to see you, May.”

“Evening, Tony.” She nods to his right arm with a smile when they seperate. “I see you’re changing it up again.”

He flexes his prosthetic arm, admiring it not for the first time. It’s made of shiny golden vibranium with thin red lines tracing all of the joints. On the inside of the wrist, “Mark 10” is inscribed. 

“Well,” he says, returning her smile, “it’s a special occasion. I had to make it party-ready. Check this out, you two.”

He points his hand to the air and brings his middle and ring finger to his palm. There’s a short  _ pop  _ of compressed air followed by a small burst of confetti flying out from the inside of his wrist. He swears he can almost see the colored paper reflecting in Peter and May’s eyes as they look at it in awe. 

“Repurposed web-shooter tech,” he says after the last of the confetti hits the floor, holding his hand out towards Peter for him to inspect. “What do you think?”

Peter takes his hand and carefully grazes his fingers over it, successfully finding and popping open the compartment that houses the cannisters of confetti. “Wow, man. That’s awesome.”

Even though Tony’s been using prosthetics regularly for almost 10 months now, he still isn’t used to not feeling parts of his arm. He set it up so he can feel tactile impressions and temperature in most places, but various sections of his arm function as storage for various tools he uses in and out of the lab instead. Watching Peter as he explores all the hidden compartments of his most recent prosthetic, he can’t help but think that a few square inches of lost sensation is worth it. 

He catches May smiling at him as he watches Peter examine his arm. She motions her head to the side. 

“Alright, kid.” He wiggles his fingers so Peter looks at him. “Why don’t you go get a head start on the snack table? I got those weird chips you like.”

“They aren’t weird.” Peter scoffs, even as he’s already heading to the main area. “They’re just hard to find.”

Once Peter’s out of earshot (and just a bit further, just to be safe), Tony turns to May. 

“Happy Snappiversary,” he says with a quirked grin as he snaps with his right hand. 

“Oh, God. Please tell me people aren’t actually going to call it that.”

“What can I say?” Tony stretches his prosthetic arm deliberately. ”If they ever make a national holiday out of something  _ you _ did, you can call it whatever you like.”

May laughs and shakes her head. “I can see it’s done wonders for your ego.”

He smirks at that, but it slowly falls as he gazes at his arm. “Sometimes I think I was cursed as a kid to rely on technology.” He sniffs sharply. “But I get by.”

“Then I guess stars really are just like us,” May says as she steps closer and smooths the lapels of his suit jacket. 

“What do you think, May? Am I finally on your good side?”

“Oh Tony, you should know by now Parkers don’t say their love. They show it.” She leans in and kisses his cheek. “Thanks for saving us.”

“Purely selfish reasons, I promise,” he says as he flexes the fingers on his right hand absentmindedly. 

She laughs and pats his cheek. ”Thanks, Tony.” As she turns to walk away, she pauses and says, “Peter won’t say anything to you about it, but he’d love to play a few games with you tonight. Don’t let him down.”

“Never.”

Tony gives himself just a moment to stand still and enjoy the moment before rejoining the party. Once he’s ready, he walks towards the music. 

**Author's Note:**

> May Parker deserves the world and you can NOT prove me wrong!
> 
> Come yell with me on Tumblr: [spider-beep.tumblr.com](spider-beep.tumblr.com)


End file.
